On Jan. 23 of last year, Jay Zantos set out on a cross-country trip. Alongside his camping gear, he packed a fat spool of 50 newly purchased state flags.

Ten months and 36,300 miles later, the 27-year-old Tustin native rolled into his hometown – now carrying 50 second-hand flags exchanged for the originals.

“I’ve always had a fascination with flags,” Zantos said. “At first I figured I’d buy a flag in each state, but they wouldn’t be as meaningful as flags that had actually flown.”

So before launching his adventure, Zantos invested $1,200 in an array of banners as diverse and colorful as the American landscape.

Then, while traveling through each state, he found someone willing to trade.

In Savannah, he noticed the Georgia flag flying over a bakery – and the owner agreed to swap. In Woodsville, N.H., he bartered for a flag at an ice cream shop. In Post Falls, Idaho, a dentist switched out the flag over his office. And here in California, Zantos scored a flag from the Balboa Fun Zone.

Other flags come from historical sites, such as the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, the Astronaut Hall of Fame in Titusville, Fla., the USS Alabama in Mobile and the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

But not everyone he approached simply relinquished a flag.

“I had about a 20 percent refusal rate,” Zantos said. “The director of a funeral home in Buffalo, N.Y., told me, ‘No, absolutely not.’ I felt like, ‘Gee, sorry you think I’m going to do something malicious with your flag.’ But, you know, it was kind of a weird request.”

As well as souvenirs, the haggling provided Zantos an excuse to chat with strangers about his mission to visit every state – and a national park in each one.

His passion for sightseeing budded during motor home tours with his parents, brother and sister.

“I learned to love road-tripping,” he said.

After graduating from Oregon State, the Foothill High alum worked as an environmental engineer for a few years.

“I liked my job a lot, but I was sitting far too much,” Zantos said. “I daydreamed about traveling for about a year in South America or Southeast Asia. Then I realized there’s a lot of the United States I hadn’t seen yet.”

He kicked off his bucket list pursuit in style, joining his family on a weeklong Maui vacation. While there, he secured a Hawaiian flag that had fluttered outside his Napili Sunset hotel.

The Aloha State? Check.

Upon returning from Hawaii, Zantos took off in a red 2005 Honda Element – and downgraded his sleeping arrangements to, mostly, his car or tent.

He followed a circuitous itinerary, as evidenced by the curlicues on a large U.S. map decorating his parents’ home – where he currently resides while figuring out his next job.

His path cut through the Southwest in February and the southern coast in March.

In April, Zantos turned west to Kentucky and Tennessee and in May followed the Eastern rim.

In June, he headed southwest to Colorado, in July shot northeast to the Great Lakes and then in August motored west toward Washington.

From there, he and his car thumbed a ferry to Alaska, after which he made his way south through the Pacific Northwest, veered east to Utah and finally west again to Southern California.

Driving only a couple of hours each day, Zantos stuck to back roads. His decade-old car broke down just once, when his alternator went out in Georgia. And, he got all of one ticket – a $25 parking fine in Key West, he said.

Zantos tackled most of the trip solo. A friend joined him in Glacier National Park and he occasionally dropped in on far-flung relatives. His mother accompanied him through Georgia and South Carolina, and he attended the Indianapolis 500 with his father.

He also hung out with new friends he made along the way. Camping in South Carolina, Zantos met Rhode Island native Ben Sienko, 26, who later showed him around his home state.

“We connected with each other,” Sienko said. “We both appreciated the feeling of uncertainty on the road – of not knowing what tomorrow may bring. He’s really cool and easy to talk to.”

And often, he found great satisfaction in solitude.

“I would see a fish in the clutches of an eagle and think about how all these amazing moments of nature go on without us,” Zantos recalled. “Sometimes, we just happen to be lucky enough to witness one of those moments.”

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